The Aquila briefly considered explaining to her housemate that the name was inspired by a Russian Spider-Man supervillain. The Russian part was very important, and being from the Spider-Man universe meant that it fit the spider theme. And it wasn’t as on the nose as Peter or Miles, who were both Spider-Man at some point in the comics, or Gwen, who was gaining tons of popularity in the comics as Spider-Gwen. It was a costume that she’d considered finding for herself once or twice, but she didn’t want to spend the money, and she considered herself to be a pretty secret nerd. So, to keep that secret to herself a while longer, she shrugged and just said it was a cool sounding name.

It would be a lie to say that she hadn’t considered ushering the small spider to her room when all was said and done that night, but it’d only be to freak out Heather. That wouldn’t be save for Kraven, though, and she wasn’t about to put the little guy in danger. Plus, that required actually touching and moving the spider, which were two things she absolutely did not want to do. Spiders were creepy and had too many legs and she’d had childhood nightmares about the Spider Baby from Toy Story.

Again, as long as the spider kept to its own web and left Kaye to hers, they would get along just fine.

Despite knowing that Ruben didn’t mean it when he said sorry, Kaye tensed and made a face. Any sad acknowledgement of the alopecia, even fake pity, was enough to set her on edge. She cared, but it was easier to pretend she didn’t care, because people were way less asshole-y when they thought you didn’t care. She knew Ruben didn’t mean anything by it, but she was comfortable enough with him to take umbrage with it anyway. She rolled her heavily lined blue eyes at the long-haired boy and snarkily said, “Well, not everyone can have your luscious locks, Rapunzel.”

It seemed that Ruben had his own stuff to be annoyed about, though, because he gave her back the gift card and explained why it was a silly thing to give him. She was surprised that Ruben would actually follow the rules to his suspension and not go to Pearl Street. What was the worst that could happen if he didn’t? What, did Rocky Mountain International actually kick people out? That didn’t seem to be the school’s M.O. If it was, they probably wouldn’t have accepted her, with multiple detentions, two in-school suspensions, and a regular suspension from a Chicago magical charter school by the old age thirteen on her record.

Anyway, that wasn’t the part that seemed to bother her friend-like person more. The break up with Holland, which Kaye had no idea about until now, was definitely what made him grumpy in this moment. She considered asking why, but he didn’t seem interested in talking about it, and was more interested in chucking things at kids sitting on the couch. Kaye searched through her bag for something that’d make the distance to the couch a little better, like unused History of Magic notes.

“Why do you not treat someone here instead with the card?"

“And who am I gonna take,” Kaye scoffed, handing him the balled up parchment, “Kraven? If you hadn’t noticed, no one’s been very interested in getting into a little,” and here, Kaye made a sexy howling sound that startled the kids on the couch and swayed her hips before laughing, “Not with me. I mean, I’m just too awesome for most people here to handle.” She didn’t feel sorry for herself; it was just a fact. “Sucks, though, that Holland broke up with you. …So who’s Rapunzel gonna let down his hair for now?”

Blue eyes blinked at the girl half-sitting on his legs. Well, that was just a weird proposal. "You are weird," he informed her, matter-of-fact. Naming insects didn't exactly make the top spot on... more

“Well, not everyone can have your luscious locks, Rapunzel.” Ruben blinked. It took him a moment to place the word, but he used to read the Grimm stories to Anssi before bed (translated versions, of... more